The Meaning of Faith in the Black Mind
in Slavery
MANNING MARABLE
I
In L'tre et le neant, Jean Paul Sartrediscussedthe existentialist
limitsof man'sfreedomand the abilityof a humanbeingto defineand
createthe essenceof anotherperson.In the oppressivesociety,"the
Other holds a secret-the secretof what I am." In the Americanexperience,Blackscontinuallyfound themselvesin the positionof being
characterized,their Africanculturenegated,and their spiritualityredefined. During slavery,the Black man sought continuallyto "lay
claim,"as Sartresuggests,"to this being which I am ... or, more
exactly,I am the projectof the recoveryof my being." The slave's
religion was often the only link betweenthe individualBlack slave
and that personwhom he soughtto be. The Blackman'sspirituality
createda collectivepride and racial solidaritywhich defied the indoctrinationof the slavemasters.
MarxisthistorianEugeneD. Genovesehas attemptedto definethe
essenceof that unique spiritof Blackpeoplewho struggledto maintain their humanityin an inhumaneenvironment.His Roll, Jordan,
Roll: The Worldthe SlavesMade (New York:PantheonBooks,1974)
is a masterpieceof Americanhistoriography,
a work which will undoubtedlyreplaceKenneth M. Stampp'sThe PeculiarInstitutionas
Manning Marable is Associate Professor of Southern and Black American History and
Politics and Chairpersonof the Department of Political Science at Tuskegee Institute, Alabama.
'Jean Paul Sartre, L'etre et le neant, or, Being and Nothingness: An Essay on Phenomenological Ontology (New York: PhilosophicalLibrary,1956), passim.
248
THE MEANING OF FAITH
the mostinfluentialand authoritative
slave
sourceon African-American
societiesand Southernculture.Genovesehas transcendedthe sterile,
theoreticalconceptsof his firstmajorwork, The Political
surplus-value
Economyof Slavery.He weavesa sensitiveretellingof the life of the
mind of an oppressedclassand casteof Americans.Genovese'sanalysis
of Black antebellumChristianityreceives extended treatmentand
providesthe basisfor his entireculturalcritiqueof servilesociety.The
notionsof faithandbeliefin a spiritualsalvationcreatedan ethosamong
Blacksof self-integrityand collectiveworthduringbondage.Genovese
reviewsthe socialinstitutionsof the slavecommunityand their interactionwith SouthernWhite cultureas he attemptsto explainthe meaning of faith within the Black experience.Genovesefails to unite the
meaning of slave consciousnessin the frameworkthat he constructs
within his general explanationof Southernsociety.Yet within his
failurelie the seedsfor a more completeunderstandingof the nature
of Blackfaithandthe meaningof Blackexistence.
Genovese provides a comprehensivecultural evaluationof the
totality of slave life. His approachto Southernhistory has always
mirroredthe work of UlrichB. Phillips,the firsthistorianwho viewed
slaveryas a complexway of life. Employinga wide range of source
materialswith scholarlyprecision,Genovesesucceedsin destroyingthe
long-heldbelief that excessiveprofitswere at the heartof the peculiar
institution'sraison d'etre.The complex,ambiguousrelationshipsbetween the Blackdriverin the cottonfields and the White planter,the
tendernessand bittersweethatredof a Blackmammyfor her enslaver's
children,wove a complicatedcaste and class system patternwhich
perpetuateditselfevenunderthe worstof financialconditions.Discarding Phillips' crude racism,Genovesearguesthat Blacksunderstood
theiroppressedconditionsfroma varietyof perspectives.
Theyfashioned
for themselvesan autonomousfamily structure,lifestyle,and general
sense of well-being which defied the day-to-daybrutality of the
enslavementprocess.DiscriminatingBlacksrecognizedthat a master
couldbe oppressivelyexploitativeor "debestes'massain de worl',"and
was usuallybothat once.Evenin the expansivefrontierslaveeconomies
of Mississippiand Texas,Genovesenotes,one findssubstantialevidence
ROCKY MOUNTAIN REVIEW
249
of numerousBlackswho servedin leadershippositionswhich involved
the maintenanceof plantations.
Genovese'smajor contributionto slave theory in the American
finds its originsin the writingsof
South,the conceptof "paternalism,"
GeorgW. F. Hegel andAntonioGramsci.In Phenomenologyof Mind,
Hegel suggestedthat the existenceof the master was inextricably
relatedto the being of the slave. Ideally,the slave was the mindless
force lumberingthroughthe materialworld, whereasthe masterwas
the intellect,the mind of the slave.Yet to be a master,Hegel noted,
one mustobtainthe recognitionand consentof the slave.Thus,a spirit
of reciprocityand recognitionof humanitymust exist between the
owner and his humanchattle.For Genovese,this ethosof reciprocity,
existedin Georgia'scotton fields and Louisiana'srice
"paternalism,"
swampsbetweenBlacksandWhites.Mastersassumedtheirrightto control and exploitthe laborpowerof Blackswithoutfeelingsof excessive
of supplyingfood and clothing
guilt but acceptedthe responsibilities
for Black infants, providedmedical care for the elderly, and gave
limited freedomto adult slavesto controlmost aspectsof their social
institutions.Slavesacknowledgedthe legitimacyof their masters'rule
overtheirexistencewith greatreservations,
Genovesestates.A conflicting senseof loveandhatredbetweenthe enslavedandthe mastercreated
a beautiful and often violent society. Thus plantationpaternalism
"affordeda fragilebridgeacrossthe intolerablecontradictions
inherent
in a societybasedon racism,slavery,andclassexploitation...."
MarxistphilosopherAntonio GramscidirectsGenovesethrougha
maze of antebellumdocumentswhich expressboth the planter'sand
slave'spoints of view toward a comprehensiveexplanationof Black
and culturein the South.Gramsciwas the firstMarxistto
consciousness
that
cultural
argue
hegemony,the dominationof the thoughtof leading intellectuals,suchas educatorsand clergymen,overrivalideologies
of oppressiveclasses,was a vital componentof bourgeoisclass rule.
Gramsci'sinsistencethatupperclassideologicalcontrolovercivilsociety
broughtaboutbourgeoiseconomichegemonyparallelsGenovese'sthesis
that the planterideologydominatedthe poor White and slave Black
250
THE MEANING OF FAITH
consciousness.2Genovese has long insisted that the planter dominated
the intellectual contours of Southern life and thereby, in Gramscian
fashion, turned all dissent away from a general political or economic
review of the legitimacy of slavery as the basic mode of production
within society.
This hegemonic domination of the planter over all Southerners,and
especially over Black slaves, could have led to the creation of a conservative, brain-washed, agrarian proletariat. Sociologist Orlando Patterson argues with Genovese that such was the case in the American
South. Paternalism,he declares, "succeededastonishingly well in welding together all the elements of the system, especially masters and
slaves."3 Such criticism is not too far from Stanley Elkins' controversial
judgment that a unique "Sambo" type probably emerged from the
American plantation:
Is it possibleto deal with "Sambo"as a type? The characteristics
that
have been claimed for the type came principallyfrom Southernlore.
Sambo,the typicalplantationslave, was docile but irresponsible,loyal
but lazy, humble but chronicallygiven to lying and stealing;his behaviorwas full of infantilesillinessand his talk inflatedwith childish
exaggeration.His relationshipwith his masterwas one of utter depen2Antonio Gramsci was the Italian Communist Party's leading theoretician during the
period immediately after the First World War and during Benito Mussolini's regime. A
Sicilian, Gramsci was acutely aware of the dimensions of culture and caste within the political
economy of his bourgeois society. Although Gramsci has been ignored among Western Marxists,
his writings are perhaps the most valuable of any historical materialiston the nature of cultural
institutions within societies, on working class consciousness, and on the political dimensions of
education and religion. Hegelian in spirit, Gramsci's Prison Notebooks are a monumental piece
of social criticism.
Genovese has been profoundly influenced by Gramsci for at least ten years; Genovese's
early writings do not show Gramsci'scultural formulations and suffer as a result. Stanley Elkins
has observed that "Gramsci'sthought provides Genovese with a way of bringing the slave fully
into the equation without repudiating his earlier convictions either about the planter class's
hegemony over Southern society at large or about the master's patriarchalrole vis-a-vis his black
dependents."
For Genovese's assessment of Gramsci, see "On Antonio Gramsci," Red and Black (New
York: Vintage Books, 1971).
3 Orlando Patterson, "The Peculiar Institution Again," review of Roll, Jordan,Roll, in New
Republic,November 9, 1974, pp. 37-38.
ROCKY MOUNTAIN REVIEW
251
dence and childlike attachment:it was indeed the very key to his
being.4
Unlike Elkins,Gramsci'sand Genovese'ssympathiesremainedwith
the oppressed.Genoveseinsiststhattherewas roomwithinthe dialectic
of paternalismfor slavecultureto surviveand even prosper.The indeof the slavequartersgavebirthto a new
pendenceand semi-autonomy
Americanconsciousness,a sense of being which was in many ways
and "nationalistic."
This Black consciousnesswas pro"pre-political"
tactics
foundly conservative,partiallyrootedin the accommodationist
of "houseniggers"and "UncleToms,"but it providedthe enslaved
with the ideologyof a separate"blacknation"- a politicalconcept
which BookerT. Washington,MarcusGarvey,and MalcolmX subsequentlybuilt upon.5Two opposing modes of consciousnesswere
createdwithin the servilesociety,the will to resistand the tendency
4Stanley M. Elkins, Slavery (Chicago and London: 1968, Second Edition) 82; Elkins, "The
Two Arguments on Slavery," paper presented at seminar, University of Kansas in Lawrence,
November, 1975.
Elkins' thesis represents the logical conclusions of the arguments established in the
sociology of E. Franklin Frazier and Charles S. Johnson and the historiographyof John Hope
Franklin, Benjamin Quarles, and especially Kenneth Stampp. Negro and White liberals had
long insisted that the African-Americanhad no separate culture or racial essence apart from
that which they adopted within the slave quarters.This school of social scientists portraysslave
life as a barren,matriarchalexistence.
Psychological damage-that is, cultural dislocation and psychic alienation of an individual(s)-must exist within the context of social relations within any biracial society. This
cultural alienation or sense of self-denial seems especially predominant in an integrated society,
within a culture that allows for social interaction between the races or castes. In the American
context, questions of psychological damage would seem to have more meaning with the
emergence of a bourgeois society than on the plantation, for Whites have been far more
successful in controlling the cultural ethos of Blacks in the twentieth century than in the
nineteenth.
Genovese was one of the first historians to suggest that Booker Washington was a
representative of a conservative, Black nationalist consciousness. Slavery and the underground Black political institutions on a slave plantation gave birth to the tactics of political
accommodation and conciliatory phraseology which Washington and his Tuskegee Machine
almost developed into an art form. On the political consciousnessof conservativeBlack nationalism, see Genovese, Red and Black; Harold Cruse, Rebellion or Revolution (New York: William
Morrow and Company, 1968); Manning Marable and Johnnella Butler, "The New Negro and
the Ideological Origins of the Integrationist Movement," Journal of Ethnic Studies, (Winter
1975) pp. 47-55.
252
THE MEANING OF FAITH
toward passivity and acculturation.Paternalismdid not create a
"Sambo";rather, it allowed intelligent, resourcefulBlack human
beings either to work within the limits of the plantationor struggle
to destroythe inequitiesof the system,dependinguponthe socialconditionsof the time.
The literatureon Americanslaverywhich has appearedin recent
thata viableservile
yearsreflectsGenovese'sconcernfor demonstrating
cultureexisted.JohnBlassingame's
The Slave Community:Plantation
in
the
Ante-Bellum
South
Life
arguesthat the folklore,family structures,and religionof the Blacksservedto createa cultureof resistance.
feud with
Blassingame'sinabilityto escapea fruitlesshistoriographic
Elkins'
"Sambo
model"
Stanley
unfortunatelysubvertshis central
culturalaims,as does his narrowchoiceof sourcesfrom existingslave
narratives.6
HerbertGutmansucceedsin illustratingthe Africancultural
of
slave
origins
society and the existenceof complex Black kinship
structuresin The Black Family in Slaveryand Freedom:1750-1925.
As well researchedas Genovese'sstudy,it insistspassionatelythat the
Black family emergedfrom the slavequartersas a highly organized,
moral and stablesocial group.There is little room for "paternalism"
as a force towardsocial conformityhere; the mind of the slave was
independentof the white man'sdemandsfor culturallegitimacyand
filial piety.7
Within the "culture"argumentsof slavehistoriography
is a central
tenet: Blackreligionwas a crucialdeterminingfactorin creatingthe
slave.The essenceof that
independentlife for the African-American
faithcan be questioned,however,sincethe originsof Blacknationalism
as a politicalforcewithincontemporary
Americanculturearegrounded
within this traditionof gospels,prayers,and hymns.The symbolicuses
of Christas a delivererwithin the secularworld, the moral implications of Blackdemandsfor civil rightsand freedom,and the political
role of the Blackministryshed light upon the currentassessmentsof
6 John Blassingame, The Slave
Community (New York: Oxford University Press, 1972).
Herbert Gutman, The Black Family in Slavery and Freedom: 1750-1925, (New York:
Pantheon Press, 1976).
ROCKY MOUNTAIN REVIEW
253
Blackfaith within the peculiarinstitutionand beyondit, into our own
violentbourgeoisworld.
II
Genoveseis quite correctin his assertionthat the struggleoverthe
consciousness
of the Blackswasthemostimportantissuewhichseparated
mastersand slaves.As Gramsciobserved,no classis worthyof the name
unlessit is consciousof itself.The slave'sfaith was the key to his very
being, to his will to protestfor largerideologicalgoals. It is not surprisingthat, as the slave'sreligion becamemore definedand in harmony with his independentAfrican spirit, the master'sevangelists
developeddetailed"positivegood"theoriesto buttressthe slaveregime.
JamesHenry Thornwell,a Professorin the PresbyterianSeminaryat
Columbia,South Carolina,arguedin 1851that the Scripturesstated
that the peculiarinstitutionwas "notinconsistentwith the will of God
-it is not sinful."Thornwellreportedto God-fearingCarolinianWhites
thatin the Bible"themasteris nowhererebukedas a monsterof cruelty
and tyranny,the slavenowhereexhibitedas the objectof peculiarcom8 Genovesewrites that the EpiscopalBishop
passionand sympathy."
of Virginia,the Right ReverendWilliam Meade,sermonedslaveson
the subjectof whipping,piouslyexplaining,"whetheryou deserveit
or not it is your duty, and Almighty God requires,that you bear it
patiently."To Genovese,the South'sracismand brutalityrestedupon
"classpretensionsthat had proceededfearlesslythroughthe ageswithout regard to race, color, creed,or previousconditionof servitude."
The struggleto determinefaith coincidedwith the hegemonicwar to
a cruel,anachronistic
perpetuate
regime.
The antebellumslavenarratives,morethan one hundredseparately
publishedbooksor pamphletswrittenby Blacks,occasionallysupport
Genovese'spaternalismthesis,but alsooftencontradictit.9The masters
'Robert T. Handy, ed., Religion in the American Experience: The Pluralistic Style (New
York: Harperand Row, 1972), pp. 106-7.
'Secondary works on the slave narrativesinclude: Marion Sterling, "The Slave Narrative:
Its Place in American Literary History," Diss. New York University, 1946; Charles Nichols,
254
THE MEANING OF FAITH
were usually unsuccessfulin their attemptto control the Hegelian
master-slave
relationshipwhichwasa partof all culturesbasedon unfree
labor.Along the religiousideologicalfront,the plantationowner was
hopelesslyoutmatchedby his unwillingfieldhands.
SomemasterswerenotconcernedwithbringingtheWordof Jehovah
to theirslaves,but manymastersunsuccessfully
attemptedto encourage
their slaves'belief in pro-slaveryfaith.The slavenarrativesof Richard
Allen and Austin Stewardrelate that their mastersdid not attend
churchor discussreligion;10
otherchurchgoingmastershadso alienated
their slavesthat some Blackswere of the opinionthat "Negroeshave
nothing to do with God."" However,the majorityof slavesunderstood that their masters'hypocriticalgospel of universalbrotherhood
and deliverancehad littleto do with theirown faithin salvation.Blacks
did not believethat their enslavementwas preordained,nor did they
acceptthe Ole Massa'snotionthata godly slavewas obedient,loyaland
hardworking-the perfectUncle Tom. Genoveserelatesone incident
when a slave respondedto the quasi-Calvinist
idea that Blackswere
createdto serveWhite masters:"Dat'sso. Dat'sso. But if dat'sso, then
God'sno fairman!"
Genovesesuggeststhat Blackreligion'sArminianfree will doctrine
drew from the dual imagesof Mosesand Jesusas the active,personal
deliverersof all Black people of faith. Even the few Muslim Blacks
along the GeorgiacoastidentifiedMuhammedwith the Christfigure.
Many slaveswere convincedthat the abolitionistsand Union troops
were the agentsof Moses.Moses,the worldlyredeemerof an oppressed
nation,representedin Blackgospelsthe belief that the race'ssuffering
wasbothpoliticalandspiritual:
Many Thousands Gone (Indiana University Press, 1969); John Blassingame, The Slave
Community.
1
Richard Allen, The Life Experience and Gospel Labors of the Rt. Rev. Richard Allen
(1833; rpt. New York: Abingdon Press, 1960), p. 16; Austin Steward, Twenty-two Years a
Slave, and Forty Yearsa Freeman (Rochester:William Ailing, 1857), p. 84.
1 Henry Box Brown, Narrative of Henry Box Brown, Who Escaped from Slavery Enclosed
in a Box 3 Feet Long and 2 Feet Wide (Boston: Brown and Stears, 1849), p. 28.
ROCKY MOUNTAIN REVIEW
255
"Go Down, Moses,
'Waydownin Egyptland,
Tell ole Pharaoh,
To let my peoplego."
Blacks had anguished as Christ had; their common suffering helped to
make Christ a very personal God. Slaves quite literally viewed Christ's
crucifixion as His personal gift to them. Peter Randolph wrote with
emotion that, as a slave, "With my mind's eye, I could see my Redeemer
hanging upon the cross for me." 12 The figure of Christ did for the
slave what the master could never do: He recognized their humanity;
He comforted them when their children were sold from them or
when they were lashed; He gave them the ability to love themselves
and even to forgive the sins of their oppressors."When the black slaves
of the New World made [Christianity] their own," Genovese writes,
"they transformed it into a religion of resistance-not often of revolutionary defiance, but of a spiritual resistance that accepted the limits
of the politically possible."
Stanley Elkins has observedthat Genovese'spaternalismthesis leaves
precious little room for the psychological damage sustained by Blacks
within slavery. Surely the Blacks were forced to accept the Other's
roles, or at least, Elkins insists, their Africanity was negated in a whirlwind of capricious regulations, whippings, sales, and rapes.13Elkins'
point is a valid one, but of course it works both ways. When he points
to the acculturation of the proverbial yellow nigger wench of the
big house, or isolates the shuffling, ragged simpletons in blackface, or
the demented Harks and Wills of William Styron's imagination, he
illustrates real tendencies of behavior which existed in any biracial
colonial society. Frantz Fanon best isolated the frustrationand hopelessness of a brutalized, exploited caste in Black Skin, White Masks and
Wretched of the Earth.l4Yet in the American South, for a variety of
13
Peter Randolph, Sketches of Slave Life: or, Illustrations of the Peculiar Institution (Boston:
Publishedfor the Author, 1855), p. 14.
3Elkins, Slavery, ChapterII.
14Frantz Fanon characterizedthe dependent existence of the colonial being as an inability
to define one's own humanity. Using the model of dependence found in Sartre'swritings, Fanon
256
THE MEANING OF FAITH
culturalreasons,the planterwas never able to dominatethe mind of
the majorityof slaves.Indeed,the masterhimselfwas hopelesslycompromisedin his contradictory
questfor bourgeoisprofitsaccompanied
with a cavalierlifestyleandmanners.
Slaverybrutalizedthe SouthernWhite elite, twisted their morals
to supportthe prostitutionof one group of human beingsby others.
Solomon Northrup,a former slave,wrote that the systemof slavery
forcedthe masterto punishhis humanproperty,and the owner,"like
a fool, whipped and scourgedaway the very strengthupon which
depended"his "amountof gain."15 In 1846Lewis Clarkewrote that
there was nothing paternalisticabout his former owners. He asked,
"How is it that masterskill their slaves,when they areworthso much
money?"Slaverywas essentiallya passionateconfrontationbetween
membersof two antagonisticcultures."A slaveholdermust be master
on the plantation,or he knows the EXAMPLEwould destroyall
1
Black PresbyterianministerJ. W. C. Penningtonspoke
authority."
for otherformerslaveswhen he wrotethatthe planters"arenot masters
of the system.The systemis masterof them."17
Faithin God'slove providedBlackswith a rationaleto rejectWhite
authorityover their spiritualand secularlives.A personalGod was in
harmonywith the spiritof oppressedAfricans.When the will of the
Divine Providencewas diametricallyopposedto the will of the earthly
mastersin the slave'sperspective,it was the ownerwho would haveto
yield. William Greenrejectedthe paternalcontrolof the owner,who
"standsthere the supremebeing, who seemsto the slavemany times,
to have more power than the Almightyhimself.But thanksbe to his
argued that the "white mask" worn by the nonwhite forced him into roles that subdued his
rebelliousness and social tendencies toward liberation. At the heart of Fanon's early works is
the dialectic of recognition as expressed in Hegelian philosophy. For so long as the Other
holds the ability to define the human spirit in degraded, exploitative terms, the nonwhite
revolution will not take place. See Frantz Fanon, Black Skin, White Masks (New York: Grove
Press, 1968).
"Solomon Northrup, Twelve Years a Slave: Narrative of Solomon Northrup (Auburn:
Derby and Miller, 1853), p. 184.
"Lewis Clarke, Narratives and the Sufferings of Lewis and Milton Clarke (Boston:
Bela Marsh, 1846), p. 111.
17 J.W.C. Pennington, The Fugitive Blacksmith (London: C. Gilpin, 1849), p. vii.
ROCKY MOUNTAIN REVIEW
257
GreatName,"Greenwrote,"heis ableto help the poorand the needy
and the distressed,when they cry for help."' The God of the Old
Testamentcommunicatedwith slaveson a regularbasisto tell themthe
methodsthey could use to deliverthemselves.God Himself explained
to HenryBrownthathe couldescapefrombondageby hidingin a box,
and the Lord patientlygave detailedinstructionsin its construction."
God told runawayslaveswhere they could find safe shelter,confused
the Whitepatrolsandtheirbloodhounds,andtaughtthe slavesnot only
to acceptsuffering,butto activelyopposeinjustice.
to leave
A verypersonalGodcommandedmy own great-grandfather
the centralAlabamaBlackbeltplantationhe workedon to migrateto
the primitivehill countryof the upperTallapoosaRiverin 1865.God's
decisionwas at the sametime my great-grandfather's
rejectionof sharecroppingeconomicsand White terrorismand the acceptanceof Black
and collectiveaction.
self-sufficiency
Roll, Jordan, Roll states that the enslaved African community
broughtforthfew rebelsand religiousfigureswho couldrejectthe allpervasivepaternalcontrolof Whitesand demandfreedom:"Classoppression,whetheror not reinforcedand modifiedby racism,induces
Yet this question
servilityand feelingsof inferiorityin the oppressed."
of religiousand socialcontrolcan be posed a differentway: Did the
existenceof the idea of the BlackGod providethe intellectualalterna? The slavenarratives
tive to acculturation,
conformity,and self-hatred
indicatethatthe White South'sGod did not recognize,in the Hegelian
sense,thehumanityof society'smostwretchedclass.Blackfaithprovided
the spiritualvehicle to overcomethe racistimages of the Other.
PeterRandolphnotedthaton his plantation"theslavesassemblein
the swamps,"risking floggingsand mutilations,to worshipin their
own way. "If discovered,they escape,if possible;but those who are
caughtoften get whipped."Randolphadded,"Someare willing to be
punishedthusfor Jesus'sake."20 Faithin Providenceand love for their
8"William Green, Narrative of Events in the Life of William Green (Formerly a Slave)
(Springfield:L.M. Guernsey, 1853), p. 7.
19
Brown, Narrativeof Henry Box Brown, p. 59.
0
Randolph,Sketchesof Slave Life, pp. 68-69.
258
THE MEANING OF FAITH
Blackbrethrencreatedan imageof a new Blackman who had to reject
the image that whites attemptedto force upon him. To be faithfulto
the Spirit,one must assertone'shumanityby being free. This revolutionaryimagecanbe foundin the personof DenmarkVessey,the South
CarolinaBlackwho organizedan unsuccessfulslaverevoltby appealing to the traditionalAfricanreligiousbeliefsand the newerBlackfolk
Christianconceptsamong the Blackcommunity.21
When White journalistThomasR. GrayaskedNat Turnerwhetherhe would admitto
having violatedthe laws of God and man by organizinga servilerebellion,Turnerresponded,"Wasnot Christcrucified?"Blackhistorian
VincentHardingwritesthatTurner'srebelliousness
wasbornin a "biblical world"dominatedby "divinelyobsessedspokesman,includingone
Jesusof Nazareth."22
The Christianresidentsof Richmonddid not respondpaternalistically upon learningof the Turneruprising.Henry Box Brownwrote
that the city was a chaoticmadhouse.Whiteswere amazedat firstand
then angeredat the prospectof being murderedby those whom they
held in uttercontempt.Blackswere severelyfloggedand severalwere
"halfhung,"as it was termed-"suspendedfrom sometreewith a rope
"Herbert Aptheker's American Negro Slave Revolts (New York: Columbia Press, 1942)
provides an economic determinist'scritique of Black servile rebellions. Also see Marion D. de B.
Kilson, "Towards Freedom: An Analysis of Slave Revolts in the United States," Phylon 25
(1964), 175-87; Blassingame, The Slave Community Chapter IV; Kenneth M. Stampp, The
Peculiar Institution (New York: Vintage Books, 1956), Chapter III; and Eugene D. Genovese,
"Rebelliousness and Docility in the Negro Slave: A Critique of the Elkins Thesis," in Red
and Black (New York: Vintage Books, 1969).
"In the past decade there has been considerable controversy concerning the Nat Turner
slave rebellion in 1831. William Styron's historical novel, The Confessionsof Nat Turner (New
York: Random House, 1967) attempts to analyze the psychological and societal rationale of
a Black rebel. John Henrik Clarke, editor of William Styron's Nat Turner: Ten Black Writers
Respond (Boston: Beacon Press, 1968) and Eugene Genovese in defense of Styron ("William
Styron Before the People's Court" in In Red and Black) debated the relative merits and shortcomings of the novel. Other examinations of the Turner rebellion include: Herbert Aptheker,
Nat Turner's Slave Rebellion (New York: Humanities Press, 1966); Nicholas Halasz, The
Rattling Chains: Slave Unrest and Revolt in the Ante-Bellum South (New York: David McKay,
1966); RichardGilman, "Nat Turner Revisited,"New Republic, 158 (April 27, 1968); Seymour
L. Gross and Eileen Bender, "History, Politics and Literature: The Myth of Nat Turner,"
American Quarterly, 23 (October 1971); and Stephen B. Oates, The Fires of Jubilee: Nat
Turner'sFierce Rebellion (New York: Harperand Row, 1974).
ROCKY MOUNTAIN REVIEW
259
about their necks, so adjusted as not quite to strangle them . . .""2
JamieParkerobservedthat local Whitesdebatedwhetherto continue
to trusttheirslavesor to give themprivilegesafterthe brutalmurders.24
One Virginialegislatorat the time noted anxiouslythat the universal
terroramong Whiteswas causedby "the suspicioneternallyattached
to the slavehimself,the suspicionthat a Nat Turnermight be in every
family,that the samebloodydeed couldbe actedoverat any time and
in any place.. "25 Genoveseis undoubtedlycorrectin assumingthat
the plantersand slaveownerswere less racist than were these city
dwellers or most Northern Whites, yet their responseto their Nat
Turnersandevenordinaryrunawayslaveswas brutal,unforgiving,and
lackingin a basicrecognitionof the Blackman'shumanity.
III
In a colonialsetting,the most unsettlingdilemmaswhich face the
oppressedmustbe the questionsof "Whoarewe ?"and "Whyhavewe
sufferedthis fate?" St. Clair Drake suggeststhat this is "the twin
Drakeobserves:
problemof uncertaintyandpowerlessness."
They knew they were Africansand "of Africandescent,"but white men
investedthe name of Africawith attributesthat broughton feelingsof
shame.Compensatorybeliefsbackedup by convincingauthority-great
myths, the sourceof every people'sdeepeststrengths-were needed to
bolstertheirself-esteem.
Black slaves, a people from diverse cultureswhich expresseda common
philosophy of being, turned to their oppressor'sspiritual foundations,
the Bible, to prove their humanity to themselves. Their "invisible institutions,"the Black congregationson plantations which met illegally,
presided over by a proud clergy of semi-literate slaves, were a "protest
church"which rejectedthe theology of their masters.26
3Vincent Harding, "You've Taken My Nat and Gone," in Clarke, ed., William Styron'.
Nat Turner, p. 25.
4 Brown, Narrativeof Henry Box Brown, p. 19.
Jamie Parker, Jamie Parker, the Fugitive. Related to Mrs. Emily Pierson (Hartford:
Brockett,Fuller & Co., 1851), pp. 16-17.
" St. Clair Drake, The Redemptions of Africa and Black Religion (Chicago: 1975), pp.
10-11, 26.
260
THE MEANING OF FAITH
Suchrejectionsof faith,the simpledenunciationsof the inhumanity
of the Other, usually did not take a violent form. Despite Herbert
Aptheker'sinfluentialearlystudyof Americanservilerebellions,most
slave
contemporaryslaveryhistoriansagreethat the African-American
did not mount many impressive,well-organizedrevolts.The Turner
rebellionwas dwarfedin comparisonto the periodic,bloodywars by
Brazilianslavesin Bahiaduringthe firstthreedecadesof the nineteenth
century.Neitherthe Stono,SouthCarolinarevoltnor GabrielProssers'
plan for rebellionmatchedthe fierce strugglesin Haiti, in Jamaica's
maroons,or the quilombosof Palmares.Genovesesuggeststhat this
lack of a traditionof revolutionaryviolenceand nihilistanarchismin
America was the product of unfriendly terrain,a densely settled,
vigilant White population,and a conservativesenseof well-beingon
the part of the oppressed.To struggle againstone's owner was an
automaticinvitationto the gallows; the slavescommonlyunderstood
thatsuccessfulprotestwouldhaveto takecovertforms.
Here again,faith providedthe activistalternativeto disillusionment
and the Sambopersonality.A. J.Mustehaswrittenthat"thecommitted
Christianhas presumablybeen engagedin ... a way of life which he
believesto be in accordwith the will of God."Many BlackChristians
could turn their backsto violenceand bloodshedand righteouslyproclaim a highermoralityand senseof being.Slavery'sculturaldialectics
demandedhelplessnessand dependence,a mode of existencein which
"theaim of the 'system'is to convince(the person)that he is helpless
as an individualand that the only way to meet regimentationis by
no to
regimentation. . ." The Christianslavesaid no to acculturation,
degradationanddebasement,no to hatredandselfpity,no to the images
of the Other.The slaveproclaimedthat "thehumanbeing, the child
of God, must asserthis humanityand his sonshipagain."Mustewrote
of the moralneed for the conscientiousobjectorto commit"holydisobedience"withinthe modern"abnormalstateof society"by protesting
wars and violence.27
Similarly,the Blackslaveresistedby assertinghis
to
be
a
moral, human being. Black religion in the antebellum
right
2aA. J. Muste, Of Holy Disobedience (Pendle Hill, Pennsylvania: 1968), pp. 9, 34-35.
ROCKY MOUNTAIN REVIEW
261
Southprovidedthe ethosof MartinLutherKing'ssenseof agape,and
liberatedthe enslavedfrom feelings of inferiorityand the crippling
hatredof all whites.
This faithin a righteousmessiah,a lovingGodwhoseholyprinciples
one day will bearheavenlyfruitsfor those who believein Him, is at
at the heartof
ideal.The conservativism
once a profoundlyconservative
Blackreligionreflectsthe traditionalspiritualvaluesof Africanphilosophy, but it also says a great deal aboutthe masters'ever-increasing
abilityto manipulatethe ideasof all socialclasses.Genoveserecognizes
thatBlackscouldescapehatingtheirmastersandthemselvesbybelieving
in God'sall-embracing
love, yet no one couldget awayfrom the brutal
realitiesof an orderlyand stableslavesocietywhich increasinglycame
into being after the Jacksonianera. "Unableto challengethe system
as such . . . they acceptedwhat could not be avoided."Blackreligion
encouragedmanyslavestoward"thebeliefthata harshandunjustsocial
of no orderat all."
orderis preferableto the insecurities
My grandmotherhas often told me thatthe slavesbelievedthatthe
Lord createdsufferingwithin the world to test our humanitytoward
each other.Her God demandsthe acceptanceof certainsocialconditions, yet He also requiresthe good Christianto act accordingto a
God demandedamongthe slaves
specificmoralcode.The conservative
of morality,the maintenance
of
the
(and my grandmother) preservation
of optimism,the quest for truth. Thus, a religion which found its
origins in the slavemaster's
parlorsand bedroomstold the slavesto
in
conform to oppression, certaininstances,and to activelyresist it
wheneverpossible.
The activisttendencieswithin the idea of God allowed for the
As
developmentof positiveBlack politicaland culturalself-assertion.
slavesocietyslowlydevelopedduringthe decadesafterthe firstarrivals
at Jamestownwereforcedinto termsof indenturefor life, Blacksreproducedvariationsof theirbasickinshipunitsfrom West Africa."Public
religiousritualsand functionariesin the Africanidiom disappeared,"
as well as the sorcererbecame
Drake observes,"butthe diviner-healer
on
the
plantationsand in the cities."The
importantpersonalities
262
THE MEANING OF FAITH
"'Hoodooman'performedthe [function]of allayinganxiety,assuring
good luck,and of confoundingenemies."The religiousenthusiasmand
spiritof Africanpeople found its plantationexpressionin the Baptist
camp meetingsand in the chantsand piousdancesof Blackcongregations. The great majorityof slaveswere not Christiansprior to the
RevolutionaryWar, and it was very likely that "the belief in Divine
as Drakestates,"wasgraftedonto"the morefundamental
Providence,"
basisof WestAfricanreligiousbeliefs...." 2
"philosophical
Peter Wood demonstratesthat during the first 150 yearsof Black
slavery,Africanlanguages,work habits,and culturalinstitutionswere
distinctlyautonomousin mostrespectsfrom White influences.In cattle
raising, rice production,and in various modes of production,the
economicaspectsof slavesocietyborethe stampof the Gold Coastand
the Guineaforestsmorethanthe imprintof Londonor Bristolmarkets.29
Gramscihimselfstatedthatconsciousness
stemsfrom materialrealities,
consciousness
can
transcend
its
material
basesfor being and can,
yet
in turn, createnew materialinstitutions.The African-American
sense
of being which was generatedfrom the conservativematerialrealities
of frontier slave labor and social existencetranscendedthe rapidly
changingeconomicconditionsof the immediatepre-warSouth.Black
was a productof Africanspiritualityand the long period
consciousness
of time (priorroughlyto 1830) in which slavesdeterminedthe hegemoniclimitsof the masters'rule.The vehicleof the expressionof Black
spirituality,the Blackchurch,was necessarilyAfricanin its character
and scope.The Black ministerbuilt upon the image of the "Hoodoo
Withinthis
man"and spiritexhorterwithinthe popularconsciousness.
faith was an unconsciousexpressionof an alternativenationalconsciousness,a need to expressin politicalterms an entirelydifferent
culturalperspective.
Vincent Harding believesthat "therecan be no common history
until we havefirstfleshedout the lineamentsof ourown, for no one else
28
Drake, The Redemptionof Africa and Black Religion, pp. 20, 22.
29Peter
Wood, Black Majority:Negroes in Colonial South Carolinafrom 1670 Through the
Stono Rebellion (New York: 1974).
ROCKY MOUNTAIN REVIEW
263
can speakout of the bittersweetbowelsof our blackness."?Not surprisingly,Hardingand otherBlackhistorianshavefoundthe originsof
the Blackexperiencewithin the ideaof God and within the expression
of thatideain the spiritualityof the slavecommunity.The Blackchurch
gave Blacksfaith in themselvesas human beings and the courageto
resistWhite oppression.In the wordsof slaveLundsfordLane,"tome,
God also grantedtemporalfreedom,which MAN withoutGod'sconsent, had stolen away."31 EugeneGenovese'sRoll, Jordan,Roll is an
excellentsurveyof the uniqueway of life andlaborthatslaverycreated,
but it fails to documentthe "bittersweet"
originsof Blacknationalist
thought and Black spirituality.Southernpaternalismattemptedbut
couldnot mold the slaves'religionnor conceptof self. Rather,through
theirrejectionof White imagesand throughthe glorificationof Providence, slaveswon the ultimatevictoryover tyranny-the triumphof
proclaimingone's Black humanityto the world. As Black human
beings,the true believersin Christfound within themselvesthe great
abilityto love andto protest.BlackministerHenryHighlandGarnet,in
a Buffalo,New York, Black politicalconventionin 1843,expressed
this activistcreed:
andtell themplainlythatyouaredeter... go to yourlordlyenslavers
minedto be free.Tell themin languagetheycannotmisunderstand,
of
of slavery,
sinfulness
andof a futurejudgement,
andof the
theexceeding
of
an
Inform
retributions
God.
them
all you
that
indignant
righteous
andthatnothingelsewill suffice.Youhadbetter
desireis FREEDOM,
live slavesandentailyourwretchedness
all die-die immediately-than
If
would
befreein thisgeneration,
hereis your
uponyourposterity. you
of
and
desire
much
all
us
However
it, thereis not
may
you
onlyhope.
of
withoutthe shedding blood.If youmust
muchhopeof redemption
bleed,let it all come at once-rather die freemen,thanlive to be slaves.2
0 Harding, "You've Taken My Nat and Gone," p. 32.
1 Lundsford Lane, Narrative of Ltindsford Lane (Boston: Hewes and Watson, 1842).
Reprinted in Wm. Katz, ed., Five Slave Nar-atires (New York: Arno Press, 1969), p. 20.
33
Henry Highland Garnet, "An Address to the Slaves of the United States of America," in
Thomas R. Frazier, ed., Afro-American History: Primary Sources (New York: Harcourt, Brace
& Jovanovich, 1971), p. 68.
264
THE MEANING OF FAITH